It’s only mid-October and there’s still a ton of time left not only in the 2025 NFL season but also before the 2026 NFL Draft in Pittsburgh. But it’s never too early to look ahead and try and project where players could land and what directions teams could go.
ESPN’s Jordan Reid did just that Wednesday morning in his latest mock draft.
In it, he has the Pittsburgh Steelers landing a first-round quarterback. However, he has the Steelers doing so late, while picking one of the more intriguing and red-hot names at the position in recent weeks.
That would be Alabama’s Ty Simpson at No. 30 overall.
“It’s essential for the Steelers to find the heir apparent under center to soon-to-be 42-year-old Aaron Rodgers, and I think Simpson has been the most impressive of the draft-eligible quarterbacks,” Reid writes, according to ESPN.com. “Despite the need, Pittsburgh waited until Round 6 to pick a QB this past April (Will Howard). It can’t wait that long again. Like (Dante) Moore, Simpson is an inexperienced starter (all six career starts have come this season).
“It’s not certain that Simpson will declare for the 2026 draft, but league evaluators have taken notice of his impressive stretches this season. He has thrown 16 TD passes and just one interception this season.”
Though Simpson is having a great season, with 16 touchdowns passes to just one interception on the season, throwing for 1,678 yards while completing 70.9% of his passes, there is no guarantee he declares.
He’s only a junior, and this is his first season starting in college football. Things didn’t start all that great for Simpson as he struggled in Alabama’ season-opening loss to Florida State. But since then, Simpson has lit it up.
Last week at Missouri in a top-25 matchup, Simpson threw for 200 yards and three touchdowns completing 23-of-31 passes. The week before that he threw for 340 yards and two touchdowns against Vanderbilt in another big-time showdown.
Simpson is listed at 6-2, 208 pounds, so he’s a bit undersized. That said, he is throwing the ball very well and has some good athleticism to his game. Former NFL QB Dan Orlovsky, during an appearance on SportsCenter Tuesday, stated that Simpson is a top-1o talent should he decide to come out.
So, landing him at No. 30 in this exercise would be a big-time win for the Steelers.
Prior to the Steelers landing Simpson at No. 30, Reid had Indiana’s Fernando Mendoza at No. 1 to the New York Jets, Oregon’s Dante Moore at No. 3 to the Cleveland Browns, and South Carolina’s LaNorris Sellers at No. 9 to the Las Vegas Raiders, making Simpson the fourth QB off the board in the mock.
Other big names coming into the season like Clemson’s Cade Klubnik and Penn State’s Drew Allar have fallen off in draft circles while a name like Simpson has made a dramatic rise. We’ll see how the rest of the season plays out, but Simpson is a name worth remembering moving forward.
